Hold On To Your Confidence
Scripture: Hebrews 10:32-39; Mark 10:46-50
Introduction:
Have you ever balled up a piece of paper and thrown it in the trash? Maybe you no longer needed it and you were finished with it. Maybe it was a situation where you were using the paper and you made a mistake on it so you discarded it. Maybe you just dropped it into the trash basket; or maybe you actually acted like you were playing basketball and threw it in as if you were making a free throw shot. Or, you could have been so frustrated that you had made another mistake that you angrily balled up the piece of paper and threw it as hard as you could into the trash. In each situation the key goal was to get the paper into the trash, but it was the emotions behind the action that determined how the trash was thrown away.
Let me give you another example. Have you ever had someone make a promise to you and did not fulfill it? When the promise was made you had confidence in them that they would do just as they had promised. When they did not fulfill their promise you lost your confidence in them. In fact, you threw the confidence you had in them right out the window. There is a difference when you casually stop having confidence in someone and when you get so frustrated that you throw it out the window. Often times when we throw something out the window there is an element of frustration and anger that is attached to it.
This message this morning is about restoring our confidence in God if you have either lost your confidence or thrown it away. There are many Christians included some of you hearing or reading this message today that after having waited on God for a long time to do something in your life when that something did not happen you lost your confidence in Him. There are times when you try to believe and have confidence that God is going to do something for you but your mind takes you back to the times when you believed and it did not happen. Because of your past experiences your mind tells you that what you are believing God for will not happen this time either. When you reach this point your confidence in God has been cast aside. This is the point where our struggle every day is to believe that something is going to be different and God is really going to do what His word promises. As Christians we must hold fast to our profession of faith and not allow our confidence to be cast aside when things do not happen on our time schedule. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10.
I. Paul’s Request of the Hebrews
We will begin reading at verse 32. I will be reading from the Amplified version of the Bible.
“(32) But be ever mindful of the days gone by in which, after you were first spiritually enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle, (33) Sometimes being yourselves a gazingstock, publicly exposed to insults and abuse and distress, and sometimes claiming fellowship and making common cause with others who were so treated. (34) For you did sympathize and suffer along with those who were imprisoned, and you bore cheerfully the plundering of your belongings and the confiscation of your property, in the knowledge and consciousness that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession. (35) Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. (36) For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised." (Hebrews 10:32-36 AMP)
In verse 35 Paul asked the Hebrews not to throw away their confidence. I will come back to this later but first I want to look at the verses preceding verse 35. In verse 32 Paul reminds the Hebrews of things that they had experienced since they first became Christians. What he tells them is that in the days which have since passed they had endured great and painful struggles. Then Paul goes on to describe some other things that they had endured. For example, he said that they themselves had been a gazingstock, they had been publicly expose to insults and abuse and distress, and sometimes they were actually in fellowship and joining together with other who were being treated like them. He reminded them that through all of this they had endured. He told them that they had sympathized and suffered right alongside of those who had been imprisoned and they had borne cheerfully the plundering of their belongings, meaning that they had actually endured people taking what belonged to them. He reminded them of the times when others had confiscated their property and he said through all of this they did it with the knowledge and consciousness that they themselves had a better and lasting possession.
Now let’s look at verse 35 where Paul asked the Hebrews not to fling away their confidence. He told them the reason for this is that their confidence will carry a great and glorious compensation or reward. Let’s look at verse 35 a little more closely. There is a reason that Paul was telling the Hebrews not to throw away their confidence and I can only assume that it was because he saw something within them that made him think they were starting to wear down. I think Paul understood as he watched the Hebrews endure everything that they had gone through that they were reaching the point of wondering if their faith was now causing them to suffer as compared to those who were not Christian. These Christians had gone through so much and while waiting patiently for God to move I believe Paul saw within them that they were getting close to turning back or doubting if God was ever going to move on their behalf.
In verse 35 Paul says “do not fling away” or as some translation read “cast not away” your confidence. The terms "do not fling away" or "cast not away" comes from the Greek word “apoballo.” This word is a compound of the words “apo” which means away, and the word “ballo” which means to throw something, such as a ball, rock or another object. When the two words are used together it means to throw away, to discard or to get rid of something no longer desired, needed or wanted. Now I want you pay close attention to what I just said because sometimes when we have suffered for so long we throw away our confidence in God as if we no longer desire it, need it or want it. This is a very dangerous place to be in especially as a Christian.
In Rick Renner’s book “Sparkling Gems from the Greek,” he talks about an example from the 10th chapter of Mark to demonstrate what this word “apoballo” means. In Mark chapter 10 in verses 46 through 52 we find the story of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. As Jesus and his disciples were coming into Jericho this man was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus who was approaching the man began to shout out to Jesus “Jesus! Son of David, have pity and mercy on me!” The people around this blind man began to severely reprove him, telling him to keep quiet and to keep still, but he kept on yelling and shouting out all the more. Jesus heard the man and He stopped and asked them to bring the man to Him. When Jesus called the man to him I want you to notice what the man did. In Mark 10:50 it says “and throwing off his outer garment he leaped up and came to Jesus.” The action that this man did is the same word that is utilize by Paul when he said that we should not cast away out confidence. When blind Bartimaeus heard Jesus call his name he moved quickly to get to Jesus. In order to move quickly and get to Jesus he threw his outer clothes off that were restricting him. His outer clothes were wrapped so tightly around him that they restricted him in his movement. He was so excited to be in Jesus presence that he did not want anything restricting him. So he threw off his clothes so he could get to Jesus. This man cast of his garments so that he can get to Jesus. This type of action is what Paul was talking about in Hebrews chapter 10. He was talking about physically and spiritually casting something away from us. He was talking about making a decision to remove something from your presence.
II. Our Confidence Is Required For God To Move
In order for us to allow God to move in our lives we must have and maintain our confidence in Him. God can only do what we trust and believe that He will do. He cannot override out belief for confidence in him. Unlike our friends who come back to us after they have destroyed our confidence in them and asked us to give them a second chance, God is not like that. God has spoken what He would do and He leaves it to us to accept or reject it. If we do not trust or believe or have confidence in Him then He cannot do it for us what we are asking. If you look up the word confidence in the Greek you find that the Greek word for confidence is “paressia.” This word literally means to have a boldness. It depicts a very bold, frank, outspoken kind of language. According to Rick Renner, it carries the meaning of being forthright, blunt, direct, and straight to the point. This word in Hebrews 10:35 refers to the bold, brave, fearless declarations and faith confessions regarding God’s promises that these believers had been making. They had been professing, declaring, and laying claim to the promises of God’s word for their personal lives. They had done it boldly, audibly, and publicly. What they believed, they had declared loudly! However, the results that they were seeking were not forthcoming and they were growing tired. They were feeling tempted to toss it all away and count all as nonsense, but this verse urged them to hold tight and to keep believing! Paul was asking them not to give up. He wanted them to know that the manifestation of God answering their prayers through the promises He had made to them was coming. He challenged them to keep walking and believing in faith.
In verse 36 of this chapter Paul tells the Hebrews the following: “For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised." He tells them that they need to be patient and to have endurance. And this wasn’t just about them and what they were hoping to receive, but so they could fulfill and fully unaccomplished the will of God. Through them accomplishing the will of God they would receive and carry away all hope of what He had promised. This is the part that we forget. When we are waiting for God to answer our prayers most of our focus is on the answer to the prayer. We are not asking God “what can I do as I wait for You to fulfill Your promise” but instead we are asking God “Lord how long must I go on!” This my friends, is the wrong question to be asking. In order for us to receive the answer to our prayers we must maintain our confidence. If you have thrown your confidence away you have to get it back.
III. Digging Through The Trash
How many of you have ever thrown something away only to realize that you needed it? When you realized that you needed it you found yourself looking through the trash to get back. It did not matter to you what trash you had to go through you had to find what you were looking for. So you found yourself going through pieces and pieces of trash, even trash that has been soiled, looking for that one piece of paper or that one thing that should never have been thrown into the trash from the beginning. How many times has someone took something of yours and threw it away not realizing how important it was to you. It carried no value for them but it carried a lot of value for you. Because it carried no value for them they threw it away not understanding what it meant to you. When you found out what had been done you went searching for that which belonged to you that had been intentionally thrown away.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have mistakenly thrown your confidence away you need to get it back. If this means that you must go through the trash in your life, all of the disappointing times, all of the times when you believed that God did not have your back, you have got to get your confidence back. If you have to dig through every situation, every painful moment, in order to get your confidence back you must do it. If you have to get on your knees before God and cry out for help in finding your confidence you must do it. It doesn’t matter how far you have thrown it or how long you have been without it you can get it back. Your confidence is out there waiting for you to pick it back up and install it to its rightful place. If you have allowed someone else to remove your confidence and throw it away you can still get it back. If someone has told you that God doesn’t care about you and your confidence left because you believed the words of someone else you can still get it back! God is waiting on you and He is waiting on me.
Before I close I want to tell a story about a woman who lost a coin. This story is taken from Luke the 15th chapter and Jesus is talking about the celebration that takes place in heaven and someone who was lost is now found. Luke 15:8-9 says the following and I will be reading from the amplified version of the Bible “Or what woman, having ten (silver) drachmas (each one equal to a day’s wages) if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and look carefully and diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she summons her (women) friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the silver coin which I had lost.”
I want you to focus on two things from this story as I close this message. The first thing I want you to focus on is what the woman did when she realized that she had lost her coin. This woman literally tore her house apart to find that coin. She did not stop when she did not locate it in the first place she looked. She did not stop when she got frustrated. She did not stop after she had been looking for an hour. This woman lit a lamp and swept her house until she found the coin that was lost. After she found her coin she called her friends and her neighbors and asked them to come and rejoice with her. She did not keep it to herself that she had found what she had lost. No she wanted others to know and she wanted others to rejoice with her. What does this say to us? If we have lost our confidence in God we need to be like this woman and tear our situations apart until we find it. If we don’t find it after the first day we keep looking! If we don’t find it after we have worked through the first, second and third situation, keep looking! Keep looking until we find, retrieve, and take back the confidence we had lost in God! And once we have it back, tell somebody! Don’t keep it to yourself; don’t celebrate by yourself tell somebody. I am not asking you to brag or to boast about your confidence being returned but there are many others who have lost their confidence in God and if we can share our situation with them and it helps them regain their confidence in God then God will be pleased with that.
Conclusion
As I close this morning I want you to consider your confidence. If you have gone through so many storms that your confidence in God is lost or on shaky ground, God is able to restore what you have lost. God has made promises to all of us and He will keep his promise. I claim my promises by faith. I’ve read God’s word to understand my His promises and then I stand by faith. God has not turned His back to us! His word still true today as it was on the day He said it. I’m going to close with the rest of the chapter from Hebrews chapter 10. If you look down I will begin reading at verse 37 and again I’ll be reading from the amplified version of the Bible. “For still a little while, a very little while, and the Coming One will come and He will not delay. But the just shall live by faith (My righteous servants shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it), and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him. But our way is not that of those who draw back to eternal misery (perdition) and are utterly destroyed, but we are of those who believe (who cleave to and trust in and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah) and by faith preserve the soul.” Hebrews 10:37-39
It is not too late regain your confidence in God. Some of you have gone through some terrible things in your life but it is not too late regain your confidence in God. Don’t let the events that you must deal with on this earth determine your everlasting reward and place with God. As you go through this week I pray God’s blessings upon your life and that you will walk with Him in peace, joy, love, and confidence.
